Salk: Life through a microscope

Plants with two shoots are produced when genes from the shoot, the above-ground portion of the plant, are driven into the embryonicroot. A plant's shoot system is responsible for all the above-ground portions of the plant, such as leaves, branches ...
— Jeffrey A. Long/Salk Institute's Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory

An embryonic stem cell cluster (red and blue) being coaxed to differentiate into nerves (green). The nerves grow radially and express the characteristics of nerves that control movement in vertebrates. The red and blue areas are indicative of specific cell ...
— Samuel Pfaff/Salk Institute

Each time a cell divides, the protective "caps" at the tip of chromosomes (red and green dots) erode a little bit further. As telomeres wear down, their DNA undergoes massive changes in the way it is packaged. These changes like ...
— Jan Karlseder/Salk Institute's Regulatory Biology Laboratory

Salk researchers extensively work with so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), which are adult cells that can be genetically programmed to behave, in many ways, like embryonic stem cells. The process does not involve destroying an embryo.
— Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte/Salk Institute

This image shows a young worm on top, which is capable of maintaining the model disease protein in a benign, soluble state. The older worm, below, can no longer maintain protein solubility and displays the accumulation of toxic, polyglutamine aggregates.
— Andrew Dillin/Salk Institute's Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory

Wing disc of a fruit fly. The larval wing disc is the source of cells that develop into wings. Fluorescent antibody stain (red) to the nuclear pore, which connects the cytoplasm to the nucleoplasm of the cell. The blue color ...
— Martin Hetzer/Salk Institute's Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory

The Salk Institute produced an "immunofluorescence image of fruit fly testis." Leanne Jones, an associate professor in Salk's Laboratory of Genetics, uses the model system to study how stem cell behavior is regulated and how the relationship between stem cells ...
— Leanne Jones/Salk Institute

This is a photograph of cortical pyramidal neurons that have been labeled with a genetically modified rabies virus. The virus is engineered so that infected neurons express a red fluorescent protein that fills all of their processes and reveals their ...
— Ed Callaway/Salk Institute's Systems Neurobiology Laboratories

Mouse cells expressing proteins that glow turquoise and red under a microscope when tagged with fluorescent molecules. These fluorescent tags allow scientists to understand how cells develop and to track DNA damage. This can be a powerful tool for understanding ...
— Tony Hunter/ Salk Institute Cancer Center